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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Is paying $50 or less year for xbox live really that big of a deal??

DMeisterJ said:
It is when PSN is essentially providing the same basic service (online play) as XBL but charges Nada. Add similar Marketplaces to buy full games, exclusive arcade games, and rent and buy (only on PSN) movies, it gets harder and harder to justify the price that Microsoft charges for XBL.

Especially when online play on the PC, PS3, and Wii are free, paying to play online games on XBOX Live is pretty crappy. It seems more like a measure to help the bottom line, rather than charging for a premium service, especially since Silver XBL members can also download movies, games, and such, all going gold gets you is the ability to play games online. I'd argue a point that the money spent to make people go online is less than the money paid to the numerous studios, Netflix and the like for their content.

With MS getting 50 dollars a person and there being 12 million (gold + silver live subscribers) that's six hundred million dollars a year, again, minus silver members. Since there aren't any real conclusions we can draw of the amount of gold-silver ratio, but let's just assume that only 50 percent of gamers who have XBL accounts are gold. that's 300 million they make for services that are free on every other platform. That's a pretty big deal.

 

well they need to make their money somehow.  Cause they sure as hell aren't making money of the console itself.  How do you think the xbox gets all those good exclusives, and timed exclusives??



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welol if you have a system for three years then that means a 200$ console becomes a 350$ console.



I think the best way to look at it is to simpy add the cost of XBL to your console.  5 years of XBL is $250, so add that to $300 and you get $550, the price of a premium Xbox 360 with online. 

It's much more expensive than a PS3 with online.  And the hardware is lower quality.  But it has a lot of games.



I'd much rather buy an extra full game a year.

Hell, I remember back when I was a kid, and I'd get 3-4 games a year, if that.

Not to mention, some people have trouble paying for gas, let alone buying XBL. People come in my store that have barely scrounged up the cash for a 1 month card, and then they don't get it again for months. That one month was a "treat" for them.



USD 50 is not very expensive,but why should i pay extra for online gaming after i have spent roughlt USD 59.90 on a game?I just feel that its not that reasonable,maybe thats the reason why i'm still a silver member and stick with my PS3 for online gaming.



 

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It sucks for me, one day a month I have to stop myself from getting the latte I usually have.



JaggedSac said:
It sucks for me, one day a month I have to stop myself from getting the latte I usually have.

 

You can afford a latte a day?  Lucky you...



jagenjg said:
Hey, XBL is cheaper than my GamyFly account (2 games out at once), and I bet the infrastructure for XBL is more expensive to run than GameFly. Those servers and bandwidth are not cheap for this stuff.

 

It truly astounds me that people are still under the belief that Microsoft is running a server for all of those games. Most of that stuff is handled through third-parties and P2P.

That $50 is nothing but revenue.

 

 



 

Consoles owned: Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PSP, DS, PS3

makingmusic476 said:
JaggedSac said:
It sucks for me, one day a month I have to stop myself from getting the latte I usually have.

 

You can afford a latte a day?  Lucky you...

 

Nope, everyday but one.  It is almost unbearable.



Hmm...would I rather pay $50 a year to play online games, or would I rather own an extra $50 game.

Answer is obvious.

I'll stick to my free PC gaming.



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